Look at far Johnny is heeling the foil over. If it was shorter he wouldn't be able to do that without the board rail touching the water and his upwind angle wouldn't be as good. Seems to me this is why the length is what it is.

But as you DONT want the foil to reach the surface, as it will ventilate and you either crash or slow down, and you DONT want to touch the water with your board either - as this slows you down like hitting a brake - then it makes sense to have a keel of a certain length, in order to have some "room" for error and waves/chop

So lots of reasons why it has a certain lenght, typically between 85 and 100cm now.

Peter

Yes the moth guys have these issues as well when the foil comes out the water they fall over, so as the wave get bigger they ride lower in the water to avoid the foil coming out in the troughs between the waves Here is a few good wipe outs guaranteed to make you smile It is a perfect example how having a longer shaft helps give more room for error, but as in this video shit still happens, and when your foiling it happens fast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwYMr53YpD0

There are training foils that are only 50CM long.The tried and truth length is around 90CM or three feet long.There is also one that is like 10 or 12 foot tall, but that is more like an experimental unit for world record.

I found the tallest one is 13 feet pulled by a boat, I think in France the world record.What is the longest one people tried, specific in kiteboarding,and what are the pros and cons of a longer one I'm asking since in a case of a unicycle the taller it is,the easier is to do the idling I'm just thinking.

The math on foils is too much to try to understand. So to keep it elementary. The longer the shaft the greater the pendulum arc of swing. This aspect of the foil is an entire topic by itself as well.

To keep in more simple, for the sake of hydrofoil kite boarding.

Your only concern with strut height is whether you have enough clearance to be above the surface conditions.

The rougher the conditions, the higher you would like to fly. However, you can negotiate the swells as you advance in your riding skills.

If your in flat water you can use a shorter shaft. However, then you would be carrying two foils around and maybe three depending on your home break conditions that dominant the surface effect.

The next thing you know will have different companies out there trying to sell us different sized length foils for different conditions. A bag of crap.

You should'nt be be more than a meter max. And whatever you do, do not compare some metail foil to the sport of hydrofoil kiteboarding. They are two completely different applications that do not cross over to each other. Trust me I know, I been doing it longer than anyone else with the exception of Laird Hamilton who is the King of wave riding on a foil.

Thanks to everyone that pitched in!my question was towards building one.to my understanding is that the longer the keel get the more carbón it will need to keep it from twisting.Between 70 and 80 for first build seem a good size to learn building and how to ride. any comments?

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